This paper analyzed the labor experience of war widows in the Busan and Gyeongnam regions through their oral statements. While paying attention to how the tellers identified themselves as ‘persons who worked and suffered relentlessly,’ their everyday life was examined by focusing on material labor and affective labor. First, labor experience shown in oral statements of war widows did not distinguish between public and private domains. Second, this study saw that the tellers selected ‘living alone’ as a part of their strategy to rearrange their lives as ‘labor subjects.’ This was the outcome of choosing a life shared with children or parents-in-law who have an attachment relationship with them. Third, the vulnerabilities of war widows created a life strategy to form solidarity with relatives or neighbors. Mutual labor of war widows was expanded from family to neighbors, turning the town community with scars from the war into life energy restored by the community of support and solidarity. This was the driving force that enabled the post-war restoration ‘from below.’